Joseph H. Peck (1885–1980)

I committed to read a book I hadn't previously read about my home state. Do you know how many books are written about Utah? Significantly less than, say, California.

So I was tripping through the library and a cover caught my eye. It was illustrated by the same person who illustrated John D. Fitzgerald ' s delightful "Papa Married a Mormon" (This and Peck's obviously didn't care about style guides). I pounced as only a desperate reader would, perused the back carefully, and decided it was worth a try.

Boy!, am I glad I did. Peck's wit is deliciously dry and his command of the English language is Twain-equse-- If Twain had been a Dr. living in 1910 Wendover Utah and allowed to talk about "Madams."

I found too much to love, not just in the humor and realism, but in the simpler times. For a Dr. then the average yearly income was 3 thousand dollars and that was decent. It wasn't like the grubbers and insurance - wranglers we have today.* The local Madam was also a hoot and hilariously accurate. Men-- read this if you want to know how to convince a woman to marry you. Hint: it has very little to do with you.

I also loved his description of a church funeral put on by the locals. Methodist high-class Easterner that he was, he had a healthy respect for all kinds (except for maybe Annie Tommy, but that is a different story) which was refreshing.

Moral of the story: If you run into a 3 dollar used version of this in decent condition... Buy it. It's worth it.


*remember I'm biased.… (mehr)